Funding the Bond 2007
Capital Project
The cost of the Bond 2007 capital project would be covered by a
combination of grant money, building aid, rental income and an
increase in the school tax levy.
In April 2006, the New York State Legislature
established the Expanding Children’s Education and Learning
(EXCEL) grant program. It provides for $1.8 billion in
infrastructure improvements for New York City schools and $800
million for school districts throughout the rest of the state.
Authorized projects must relate to education technology, health
and safety, accessibility, physical capacity expansion or school
construction, and energy costs/consumption. The $676,811 in
EXCEL funds designated for Schalmont Central School District
would cover approximately 6.97 percent of the cost of Bond 2007.
New York State distributes building aid to
school districts to reimburse them for costs incurred in doing
capital projects. That reimbursement is based on an individual
district’s building aid ratio, and for renovation projects, it
is typically paid over a 15-year period. Based on Schalmont’s
building aid ratio, 62.8 percent of the cost of Bond 2007 would
be covered by the state.
Schalmont would collect 1.42 percent of the cost
of Bond 2007 from organizations that rent space at Schonowe
School. This would be done with the collection of an extra
$12,374 in annual rental fees beginning in the 2009-2010 school
year. This increase would result in no direct cost to local
taxpayers for renovations at the facility.
Finally, Schalmont would be responsible for
raising a little over a quarter of the cost of the bond. Part of
that would be covered by a $200,000 line item for facilities
projects already included in the annual school budget.
The rest would be covered by increasing the school tax levy by
$49,935 beginning in the 2009-2010 school year.
If Bond 2007 is passed, the school tax levy will
be increased by $49,935 beginning in the 2009-2010 school year.
The estimated increase of
2/10
of 1 percent (0.2%) in the amount of money that the district collects from
local taxpayers would remain for 15 years until the bond
financing is paid off.
How might this play out for an individual
district resident? As an example, a home now assessed at
$100,000 with a school tax bill of $1,700 would see an increase
in the school tax bill of $3.40 with the passage of Bond 2007.
In other words, almost $9.8 million in capital projects could be
completed if each local taxpayer were to contribute roughly the
cost of:
once a year for 15 years.
